The State of Private Research on Africa

1965 ◽  
Vol 8 (01) ◽  
pp. 29-42
Author(s):  
Robert A. Lystad
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
University Education ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Teachers College ◽  
Haverford College ◽  
Five Disciplines

It is the purpose of this paper to summarize briefly the nature of current and prospective social science research on Africa conducted by the nongovernment research community. Part I is devoted to a brief description of the attitudes and aims of the private researcher and to some general considerations about his past accomplishments and present concerns in the field of African Studies. Part II discusses African research in each of five disciplines: political science, anthropology, economics, psychology, and education. Chief sources for the paper are the relevant chapters of the forthcoming book The African World: A Survey of Social Research, edited by Robert A. Lystad for the African Studies Association (New York, Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., April 20, 1965). This paper is reproduced by the kind permission of Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. The authors of the chapters used as references in this paper are: Political Science, Harvey Glickman, Haverford College; Anthropology, Philip Gulliver, School of Oriental and African Studies; Economics, Andrew M. Kamarck, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development; Psychology, Leonard Doob, Yale University; Education, David Scanlon, Columbia Teachers College. The present writer is solely responsible for the presentation and interpretation of their materials as they appear in this paper.

On Social Change and Social Science Research in Africa

1969 ◽  
Vol 12 (02) ◽  
pp. 227-235
Author(s):  
Robert L. West
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Research Centers ◽  
Liaison Committee ◽  
Research Institutes

Since its establishment in 1966, the Research Liaison Committee has been charged by the members of the African Studies Association with the responsibility of finding ways to strengthen collaboration among African scholars and scholars from North America engaged in African research. The R.L.C, has been the principal instrument of the African Studies Association for informing and advising its members about research projects conducted in Africa by African, American, and other scholars; about the programs and facilities of research centers and institutes located in Africa; about the policies and procedures of governments and universities in Africa with respect to research and the activities of foreign research workers; and about the special needs and priority concerns of the governmental and academic research communities in Africa. The obverse of these responsibilities has been the effort by the R.L.C, to improve the means of communication with African research centers and to increase their familiarity with the capabilities and interests of American scholars concerned with Africa, particularly in the social sciences, the humanities, and in the broad field of development research. The R.L.C. has found two principal means of carrying out these responsibilities. First, it has entered into cooperation with groups of research centers in Africa, and with councils of scholars and directors of research institutes, to enlarge the exchange of information between the scholarly communities of Africa and North America; a notable example is the collaboration with the Council of Directors of Economic and Social Research Institutes in Africa (CODESRIA), whose chairman, Dr. H. M. A. Onitiri of the University of Ibadan, visited major centers of African studies in the United States in the spring of 1969 as a guest of the African Studies Association.

The University of Zambia's Institute for African Studies and Social Science Research in Central Africa, 1938-1988

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 237-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. C. Musambachime
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Studies ◽  
The University

G. K. Gwassa states that research institutes in Africa constitute one critical factor of development in that they have to undertake the twin problems of research which involve the search for and the discovery of the process of social development. They also undertake purposeful functional research by (especially) studying and analyzing internal economic and social conditions in order to determine the characteristics, variables, and criteria for rational economic and political actions within a given country. These have become the functions of many social science research institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. The pioneer in all this is the University of Zambia's Institute for African Studies, the oldest social science-oriented research center in black Africa.The Institute was founded in 1938 as the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute for Social Research (RLISR). In its fifty years of existence the Institute has made contributions which have earned it an international reputation for its research work. The aim of this paper is to assess the contribution of the Institute to social science research in its first fifty years of existence. In undertaking this task, I propose to discuss the topic under three broad areas: foundation, aims, and objectives; publication and research; and problems encountered and their solution.

ESRC Review

2020 ◽  
pp. 657-698
Author(s):  
Simeon J. Yates ◽  
Jordana Blejmar
Keyword(s):  
Social Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Levels Of Automation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Technological World ◽  
Ways Of Being

Two workshops were part of the final steps in the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) commissioned Ways of Being in a Digital Age project that is the basis for this Handbook. The ESRC project team coordinated one with the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (ESRC-DSTL) Workshop, “The automation of future roles”; and one with the US National Science Foundation (ESRC-NSF) Workshop, “Changing work, changing lives in the new technological world.” Both workshops sought to explore the key future social science research questions arising for ever greater levels of automation, use of artificial intelligence, and the augmentation of human activity. Participants represented a wide range of disciplinary, professional, government, and nonprofit expertise. This chapter summarizes the separate and then integrated results. First, it summarizes the central social and economic context, the method and project context, and some basic definitional issues. It then identifies 11 priority areas needing further research work that emerged from the intense interactions, discussions, debates, clustering analyses, and integration activities during and after the two workshops. Throughout, it summarizes how subcategories of issues within each cluster relate to central issues (e.g., from users to global to methods) and levels of impacts (from wider social to community and organizational to individual experiences and understandings). Subsections briefly describe each of these 11 areas and their cross-cutting issues and levels. Finally, it provides a detailed Appendix of all the areas, subareas, and their specific questions.

Reagan Administration Proposes Sharp Cut-Back in Federal Support for Social Science Research

1981 ◽  
Vol 14 (02) ◽  
pp. 262-263
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Reagan Administration ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Ethnic Relations ◽  
Race And Ethnic Relations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family

By now most of you are aware of the severe cuts in federal funding for the social and behavioral sciences and for the humanities proposed by the Reagan Administration.At the National Science Foundation, while support for the natural sciences is slated to increase, the proposed budget for the social and economic sciences calls for a 65 percent reduction.At the National Institute of Mental Health (ADAMHA), the Administration proposes toeliminateall social research, which is expected to include research on the family, socialization of children, effects of separation and divorce, evaluation of prevention efforts with children, effects of mass media on behavior of children. In addition, the definition probably will include social policy research, research on race and ethnic relations, studies of community structure and change and studies of social institutions.

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